Surprisingly enough, the small Houndour was sleeping, even at the time of night when he was supposed to be awake. Though many in his pack considered him to be lazy or incompetant, he was pretty strong and took it upon himself to sleep more than the rest. Now, was he really that powerful? Only compared to the rest of his pack - and that was without even battling others outside of the pack. He had only had experience with other Dark Pokemon, and trying to keep away from the humans and their exile was challenging enough. He deserved it.

The sound of footsteps made the black, skulled Pokemon's ears quiver, and his sleep was finally disturbed. His eyes peeled open slowly, and an aggravated look crossed his features. Somebody was being too disruptive. And nobody should be disruptive around him - his entire pack had figured that out the hard way, and so would these newcomers.

He rose, and his fur bristled. The scent...it was a human. Sure enough, the pair came along, human and Pokemon alike. Hand in hand? Not quite, but it was still too cutesy for him. He growled and curled his lip in disgust. How gross. A human and a Pokemon...humans hated Pokemon enough, why did the Pokemon have to suck up to the humans like that? It was vile and...beneath him, that was for sure.

<Why do you dare to disturb my sleep?> the dog asked, almost too calm for being angry. His tiny tail was stiff, and his bone-ringed paws were digging into the ground.

This Houndour was not a morning person.

The Houndour stared - more like glared - at the two newcomers. The man's face was extremely pale in complexion...and that Riolu looked really tough. But of course he could handle it! He wouldn't let himself get caught by a couple of rookies...He growled and braced himself, sensing an attack heading towards him.

Force Palm hit him square in the chest, and he flew backwards with a howl. He got up, still shaky, and shook off his fur. He smirked at the Riolu. <Hrn, good attack, but you've gotta do better than that to beat me. I'm the strongest Houndour in this area, and I won't let anybody beat me up!> he barked, before suddenly heading towards the Riolu with a fast pace. He paused and inhaled deeply before spitting out a bunch of fire tongs at the psychic Pokemon.

<Take this!> he barked, his ears flying backwards. The Ember was aimed at the Riolu, and hopefully it would hit...but this Houndour wasn't really one to mess up on accuracy.

The Houndour's ears flew backwards even further at the sight of that trainer's sinister smile. That man was plotting something - from the looks of his fit Riolu, he wasn't a new trainer. He was experienced, and dangerous. Well, it was his fault for picking a fight with this houndour, and the small dog was surely going to make him pay! He growled under his breath, watching, waiting for what his new opponent was going to pull off next...

The opponent ran into the hit, which was really no surprise. An Ember attack against a Riolu this strong wouldn't do much against him. But the Houndour smirked at the next orders. A Screech attack - sure, they were extremely effective, but their low hit rates would make this an easy miss. The dog bounded out of the way of the Screech attack, getting slightly hit by the outskirts of it - he was only mildly grazed, and though his Defense was down, it was only down by a small amount. He leered and lowered his head. <Gotta be quicker than that to beat me, kid,> he said.

Hm, ironic, when he was practically a kid himself.

His mouth parted open, and he took a deep breath before letting a Smog cloud escape from his mouth. He smirked a little - though accuracy chance was lower, he had a plan in mind...having the attack hit, though he was really trying to aim for the Riolu, would just be a bonus.

The small hound grinned when the little Riolu ran directly into the cloud. The gases in the cloud were poisonous, of course, but the compounds inside would make it extremely easy for his Ember attack to be multiplied. This trainer, was he stupid? His Riolu could easily have been hurt with that attack, and he could have evaded it even more easily...Eyes narrowed at the thought. Maybe he had some sort of plan in mind...not like he would be able to go through with it.

He saw the Screech attack coming, but he couldn't dive away in time. The hit was direct, and his ears flew back from the pain of the sound. His Defense was down, but the clouds of Smog would be able to raise his evasiveness, right? He growled low under his breath before taking a large intake of air.

He blew out fiery embers from his maw, and they were indeed magnified by the chemicals in his Smog attack. However, accuracy was a problem he did not forsee. His eyes narrowed as he tried to aim for the little Riolu, but the guy was too quick for him to follow. He growled again, trying to intimidate the opponent.